It’s important to respect both people’s urge to connect with nature, as well as the local ecology.
Keith G. Tidball, PhD, is an environmental anthropologist at Cornell University, where he serves as a Senior Extension Associate in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Assistant Director of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Environment & Natural Resources program area, and Faculty Fellow with the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. His work centers on how community-rooted, nature-based practices—particularly in the aftermath of trauma or disaster—build social-ecological resilience, foster a shared land ethic, and catalyze healing through everyday green spaces.
A longtime Nature Sacred collaborator, Tidball was involved in rebuilding the community garden at Queens’ Beach 41st Street Houses—destroyed by Hurricane Sandy—as a project supported by a Nature Sacred National Award. This and his broader research on “urgent biophilia” offer vivid, evidence-based affirmation of Sacred Places: their role as accessible, restorative portals into health, connection, and community regeneration.
Keith has produced a large body of academic work that has been cited thousands of times. Below is a brief sampling of his research that most directly relates to Nature Sacred’s work:
Articles
- Urgent Biophilia: Human–Nature Interactions and Biological Attractions in Disaster Resilience (Ecology & Society, 2012)
- Civic ecology: a pathway for Earth stewardship in cities (Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment, 2012)
- Preliminary Analysis of TKF “Book & Bench” texts (Civic Ecology Lab White Paper Series, 2018)
